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On Storms and Whirlwinds
By Marie Ottiker

After the southern United States and other parts of the world began putting themselves together again following unwelcome visits of hurricanes, floods and tidal waves, I became curious about the atmospheric forces against which humans are so helpless. I found the following:

Hurricane Francis

HURRICANE - from the Spanish “huracán” and the Caribbean word meaning evil spirit. This tropical storm known as a hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean and a typhoon in the western Pacific, has winds of 74 miles an hour or more, usually accompanied by heavy rain, thunder and lightning. Typhoon comes from the Chinese word “tai fung” meaning “great wind.”

CYCLONE - the Greek word meaning “wheel” or “moving in a circle,” is a storm or system of winds that rotates around a center of low atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the southern hemisphere and counterclockwise in the northern. It often brings heavy rain.

TORNADO - from the Spanish “tronada,” meaning thunderstorm. A violent destructive whirlwind accompanied by a funnel-shaped cloud that moves in a narrow path over land. A waterspout is a similar tubular column of rotating wind, usually extending from the underside of a cumulus cloud down to the surface of an ocean or a large lake, and usually within several kilometers of a coastline.

And if we wander over the world, we will encounter an entire alphabet of winds and gales. Such as the Chinook and Santa Ana winds, warm and dry, picking up speed on the leeward side of mountain ranges and blowing over the California desert. Or the Mistral, a cold dry wind from the north that blows over the Mediterranean Sea. Then there is the Monsoon, a periodic wind reversing direction with the seasons in the Indian Ocean and Southern Asia that causes devastating floods, and the Nor'easter, a strong gale off the coast of New England that has caused hundreds of shipwrecks.

The Pampero is a violent wind that sweeps across the vast Argentine grasslands laden with dense dust clouds. The Sirocco is a hot blighting wind out of North Africa across the Mediterranean coast that produces blinding sand storms, while the Squamish is a very strong wind that occurrs in the fjords of British Columbia. The Barber carries damp snow or sleet and spray that freezes on contact with objects, especially hair.

Besides these malevolent manifestations of nature our planet provides fogs and droughts, ice and mud avalanches, tsunamis, earthquakes, floods and volcanic eruptions. Humanity still has quite a bit of breathable oxygen and when nature gives us a respite, there is glorious beauty in the seas and the land. But don't let anyone tell you this is a friendly planet.

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